Belfast

The Titanic and a wander

23rd February 2013

It is a given rule that the closer something is to your house the longer it will take you to go and visit it. Last year on its hundredth anniversary a new centre was opened on the site of Harland & Wolff dedicated to the Titanic. If I was going to be in the city for a few days this was one of the things that I definitely wanted to go and visit. Not one of my friends had ever been.

The second rule is that it takes visitors to turn you into a tourist in your own town.

The design of the building went through numerous variations but ultimately metal bows jutting out from a glass (ice) central core was chosen. You have to book your time slot and if you miss it they don’t offer refunds.

My only complaint was that it was all too dark to be able to photograph much. But there was plenty to read and find out about. The beginning of the exhibit explains just how important Belfast was at the turn of the twentieth century. Harland and Wolff had become the world’s largest shipyard, and the city was booming (sixty odd years later this stopped being a metaphor).

Having become conversant with the economic power of Belfast in the early 1900’s you are taken up a replica of part of one of the gantries that was built for the Titanic and the Olympic (we all forget the sister ship). From here you take the shipyard ride.

This is similar to the sort of thing that you would see at an attraction park, except that here you are informed, and the cramped and foul conditions that the workers are subjected to has nothing to do with the Pirates of Anywhere. It is all to do with money. As you come up alongside the hull’s plates you see the riveters squeezed into place hammering away with the red-hot rivets. They were paid by the rivet. Even in a mock environment the noise was deafening.

It is now 31st May 1911 and as you emerge from the ride you come to a window. Outside is the same slipway that you are watching in the film projected onto the window. 100,000 cheering people as Titanic enters the water.

The next part was probably my favourite section. Exact replicas of the cabins and the stories behind some of the staff and passengers. It would appear from my friends that there is a replica staircase somewhere but that is for VIPs only. Those of us in Third Class get something much better. A 180° screen within which you stand as the camera takes you from the bowels of the boat to its outside decks. As the camera pans, tilts and passes through the decks I found myself moving my feet to stay steady—not that I was actually moving.

On 2nd April 1912, RMS Titanic, having been fully fitted out, left Belfast for Southampton on her maiden voyage. You follow her route and watch as passengers come and go. As she steers her way across the Atlantic the messages start coming in from other ships : ICE.

At 2340 hours on 14th April 1912, her Captain having refused to heed any of the warnings, Titanic ploughed into an iceberg at 21 knots (39 kph) and ripped a ninety metre gash in the hull beneath the waterline. The rest became history. Of over two thousand passengers and crew only seven hundred and ten survived the sinking.

The final sections take you through the courts of enquiry and a chance to view video of the wreckage not only on screens in front of you but also on a screen beneath your feet.

Rather like my visit to the Louvre in Lens I came away having had enough but knowing that I could easily go again as I had certainly not looked and read everything on offer.

William III at Carrickfergus

The rest of my weekend was spent pottering about Belfast with Sam and reminding myself that there is not a lot to see in Carrickfergus.

Sunday turned out to be quite sunny so the morning was spent out for a drive around Carrickfergus (The rock of Fergus). The famous castle is one of the finest Norman built examples still standing (built by John de Courcy in 1177). As de Courcy had invaded Ireland on a free-lance basis Carrickfergus found itself besieged by King John who had decided that querulous barons needed to be reminded who was King. Five years later at Runnymede they would remind him of a thing or two of their own.

About the only thing that yer average Ulsterman knows about Carrick is that it was here in 1690 that King Billy arrived in Ireland to deal with the Irish under King James II. James had made the mistake of suggesting religious tolerance and had been ousted in England by an invasion of Dutch, Prussians and sundries under the Stadtholder of the Netherlands William III. The last invasion of England was therefore not in 1066 but 1688.

Knockagh Monument

High on the hill behind the town is the Knockagh Monument to those from County Antrim who perished in the Great War. and subsequently, that of 1939-45 as well. When you get up to it, the obelisk is far larger than you thought (34 metres high). The view over Belfast Lough is superb.

Early afternoon I headed back into The Smoke to see my mate Sam. Now I had the sun out I wanted to wander about and get some photos of Samson and Goliath the two great cranes that symbolise the town (rather ironic really considering that they are Krupps built). Those taken we headed to the Victoria Centre and the Dome observation platform—it’s free and offers a good view over the town. I’ll accept that Belfast does not come under fabulous looking town status but its setting is is not bad and is very different to the rolling plains of crops to which I have become accustomed.

I also managed to finally get myself somewhere on foot from where I could photograph Napoleon’s Nose; a famous feature that can only be appreciated from a distance, because it is an optical illusion.